Moonlight and Shadows
by Kitsune Moonstar
Summary: Some missions made Elena consider killing her boss, except then she wouldn't get paid. Well, it could be worse.


Author's note: I do not own Final Fantasy VII or its characters. This is set after Advent Children.

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**Moonlight and Shadows**

Elena wrinkled her nose and adjusted her corset as unobtrusively as possible. If he wasn't the man who signed her paycheck, she would have killed Rufus ShinRa. This was his idea of helping to rehabilitate his image. So now she and the rest of the Turks were taking a gaggle of children trick or treating in costumes that Rufus had picked out. She supposed she was fairly lucky. Her costume could have been worse.

She was supposed to be one of the highlanders from the Cosmo Canyon area. Of course, her skirt was much shorter than the highlanders' traditional dress. Still, she wore a blue, green and white tartan skirt complete with a matching blue bodice and a shawl pinned over one shoulder. The corset had come with the outfit and was remarkably uncomfortable. It really wasn't fair. Rude was a martial arts master while Tseng got to be a vampire. Reno was the only one who could say he had a worse costume than hers. He was stuck as a priest, and he had been warned to behave with the threat of being shot.

That at least was a bright spot in the evening. She got to the shooting. That was if Tseng didn't beat her to it. Her boss wasn't exactly in a good mood either. Not that Elena blamed him. Rufus had come up with some crazy ideas in the past, but this one took the cake. Still, there could be worse things than taking a bunch of spoiled brats trick or treating. There were nearly thirty children participating in this thing. Half of them were from Midgar's remaining affluent families. The rest were children from the slums. Rufus had provided those children with costumes and anything else they needed for Halloween.

Elena had no doubt that this stunt would do wonders for Rufus' image. She also had no doubt that it would cause her a headache. Large groups of children tended to do that to her. Throwing in large amounts of candy didn't help either. Currently, there was a fairy hanging off one of her arms, a cat tugging at her skirt, a witch balanced on her hip, and a cowboy trying to lasso her hair. This was not a great way to start an evening. It was definitely going to be a long night.

Thankfully, all of the trick or treating would be taking place on the plate. They didn't need to be worrying about gangs, monsters, or any of the other problems that came with most of Midgar.

"Is everyone ready?" Tseng called out.

There were affirmatives all round, and they finally got a move on. Elena let of sigh of relief. The kids were easier to handle when they had something to do rather than waiting around all the time. Elena somehow got stuck with the rearguard. That meant she was stuck with keeping the kids from falling behind or wandering off. When had babysitting been added to the Turks' job description? Well, they had babysat senior members of ShinRa, but this was rather different.

It got worse the farther they went. And keeping the children out of the candy was turning out to be a job and a half. Elena was very close to tearing her hair out. It didn't help that some of the children were much less well behaved than others. The affluent children were actually more of a problem. Children from the slums knew what the Turks were and not to get on their bad side. The rich kids didn't know who they were or they didn't care. And unfortunately, it wasn't as if they could actually do anything to punish the children. Probably the worst they could do would be confiscate some of the candy. Elena was considering doing that anyway. She needed some chocolate badly.

The tenth time the cowboy tried to lasso Elena's foot and trip her she was ready to strangle the little brat with his own lasso. They still had eight more blocks to go, but Elena was seriously considering attempting mass murder. Maybe she could convince Reno to help. He looked like he was close to snapping as it was. Of course, it wasn't like the children would be much of a challenge. It would probably take her fifteen minutes tops to deal with them all. Longer if the others tried to interfere, but Elena doubted any of her fellow Turks would really complain if she snapped and killed all the children.

Shaking her head to clear it of unhelpfully homicidal thoughts, Elena carefully checked for any threats behind them. They needed to get things over with. Maybe a monster attack could cut the trip short. While her brain kept coming up with more helpful solutions to the problem at hand, Elena kept a close watch on the streets. So when they were attacked, she wasn't caught completely by surprise.

They attack her from behind. There were at least five of them, and they clearly thought that she was the weakest link in the group. Elena supposed that technically that was true, but the day she couldn't take on low level goons by herself was the day she resigned her position as a Turk. The fact that her specialty was hand to hand combat only proved to be a bonus. The first man went down with an arm broken in three places. The second suffered groin and knee injuries while the third had a broken nose and a dislocated shoulder.

And then her fellow Turks got in on the fight. The thugs really didn't put up much of a fight once that happened. Reno and Rude secured the remaining ones while Elena and Tseng gathered up all the children and did a head out to make sure they hadn't lost anyone. They hadn't. The children were having varying reactions to the altercation. Most of them seemed to think it was extremely cool while others were looking rather afraid of the Turks, especially Elena. That might actually be useful.

Tseng surveyed the scene. "What do you think, Elena, crime of opportunity or motive?"

"Opportunity," came her prompt reply. "If they had actually planned this, I wouldn't have been able to take out three of them without the others responding in a strategic manner. They saw what they thought was a soft target and went for it."

Her boss nodded. "I agree. The question is how do we proceed. We could cut the outing short. There are only six blocks left, and the children have plenty of candy. It would probably be safer for the children that way even if they are disappointed."

"If you think that's best, sir." Elena was careful not to let her personal feelings color her answer. Inside she was jumping up and down in excitement.

Tseng gave her a wry smile. "Given that you all seem rather on edge with all these children around, I think that would be best. We wouldn't want there to be an accident of some sort. Bedsides, I had some ideas of my own about what I wanted to do tonight."

They began herding the children back to the pick up point. Elena was quite interested in finding out just her boss' plans for the evening were, and she was ready to get rid of these kids. They managed to make it back mostly in one piece. There had been a few minor misshapes, most of them involving children who wanted to get into their candy before they were supposed to, but for the most part, it was quiet. There were no other attacks against the group either. It seemed that the rest of the thugs out had figured their group was more likely to hand out tricks rather than treats.

When they arrived back at the meeting point, most of the parents were already waiting for them to return. It was a relief to be able to turn the kids over to someone else to deal with. And thankfully, it wasn't a long wait for the rest of the parents to arrive. Still, Elena was more than tired when the last child was finally picked up. Elena let out a sigh as that family disappeared into the night.

"Well, I'm off to find my own treats for the evening." Reno flashed her a smile. "Want to come along, Laney?"

She shook her head. She wasn't up to a night of carousing with Reno and Rude. Especially not dressed as she was. She would spend half her time fending off drunken advances. No, unless Tseng had plans for them, Elena was heading home for a nice long bath and a book before bed. She would also need to pick up some chocolate as well. She hadn't really had a chance to swipe some of the kids' candy before they left, and Elena figured she deserved something for all the problems this had caused.

Reno and Rude took off. With a sigh and a stretch, Elena collected her coat.

"Is there anything else you need tonight, sir?"

Tseng helped her into the coat. "Have you eaten yet?"

Elena shook her head. "No. I was going to grab something on the way home."

"Why don't you join me for dinner then?"

It was an offer she all too happy to accept. She didn't quite know what to call this relationship of hers with Tseng. They weren't exactly dating, but they were quite a bit closer now than when she had started as a Turk. It was clear that they were moving in a romantic direction, but they were making speed slowly. Tseng led them through the dark streets into a part of town that Elena wasn't familiar with. The restaurant looked like a hole in the wall from the outside. On the inside, however, it was another story.

A waiter quickly seated them, and Elena got a chance to look through the menu.

"Is there anything you would recommend?"

Tseng smiled at her. "You would like the grilled chicken or the noodles and broth. If you want something a little lighter, there are the dumplings. Would you like some wine?"

"That would be lovely, thank you."

They ordered when the waiter came back, and Tseng ordered some sort of Wutain wine. The food turned out to be delicious. Elena had ended up ordering the chicken which was really lovely. They ended up discussing literature over the meal, and Elena was pleased with how relaxed Tseng was. Their past few dinners together had been interrupted by work, and it was nice to have a chance to eat and talk and not worry about that. He was a good conversationalist, and it turned out that they had a number of interests in common when it came to books.

They lingered over the food, and rather than leave, Tseng suggested they also get dessert. Elena wasn't going to disagree with that. Not after what she'd been through tonight. Her only difficulty came in choosing which of the desserts she wanted to try. It was an agonizing decision, but Elena finally settled on the dark chocolate and orange torte. Tseng got the raspberry chocolate cheesecake. In the end, Elena ate at least half of that as well. Despite the fact that they were sitting in a restaurant in these ridiculous costumes, Elena was having a lovely time.

When they finally left the restaurant, the streets were empty and dark. Elena wasn't concerned though. Anyone foolish enough to attack them would get a very nasty surprise. Tseng kept his arm around her as they head towards her apartment. She enjoyed their shared warmth and feeling of being so close to him. Perhaps this slow and steady pace of theirs was paying off. As the reached her apartment door, Tseng gently tugged her into his arms and kissed her. Their lips finally parted, and the two of them stood together in the shadows, neither of them ready to move. Finally, Elena spoke.

"Would you like to come in for coffee?"

Tseng smiled and followed her into the apartment. Maybe she had ended up with a treat instead of a trick after all.


End file.
